WHM Have NO Natural Refresh Capability, WHY?

[Wolfe]

Allow me to break this down into nice little categories for everyone.

Cura II
As if the first spell didn't suck enough already, now you add in Cura II. Wouldn't have been too bad of a spell if you could target people outside of your party, then it would ALMOST make sense to have it. All Cura is, is an under powered Curaga. And no, it does not matter if Afflatus Misery is up or not, the spell still sucks. Being able to cure 100+ HP, ONLY if you have sustained sufficient damage and ONLY to yourself makes it stupid. Guess what? White Mages are NOT supposed to sustain damage. Hence why there is enmity down armor. Curaga may take up a little bit more MP, but the amount of HP recovered is more stable and reliable than Cura AND you can cast it on other people instead of having to run down to the DD's and put yourself in harms way. Which ALSO makes Cura useless because in a pinch, I am going to throw out a Curaga spell first (especially to wake other sleeping teammates!), that way I do not have to worry about accidentally moving and interrupting my spell casting (which seldom happens for me, but happens quote often if you are not used to playing the job). I am a seasoned White Mage, I have been playing it for 6+ years. Cura is a joke. Care to guess what that makes Cura II?

Refresh II
Because Red Mages everywhere were upset about Battery Charge being too powerful, now they get Refresh II and guess what? You are boosting the effect of Battery Charge to make it more powerful still. While White Mages STILL have no natural ("natural" means the job by itself with no subjob or other item/equipment) refresh capability. Every single mage job in the game (any job that uses MP naturally) has some form of natural refresh. Let me count the ways:

Natural Forms of Refresh (or otherwise saving MP)

* White Mage: Nothing
* White Mage: Devotion (Oh wait, that gives MP to OTHER people... yeah no MP for WHM)

* Black Mage: Aspir (May not be much, but its something)
* Black mage: Manafont (2HR, unlimited MP)
* Black Mage: Clear Mind V (May not be refresh, but sure helps a lot when healing. Originally not given to WHM or SMN at 75, they have to wait the longest, why?)

* Red Mage: Convert
* Red Mage: Refresh
* Red Mage: Refresh II (That's right, 3 forms of MP recovery while most jobs have 1, maybe 2)

* Paladin: Auto-Refresh (May not be much, but PLD do not have much MP to begin with)
* Paladin: Chivalry (Converts TP to MP)

* Dark Knight: Aspir
* Dark Knight: Aspir II (Still beats nothing)

* Bard: Mages Ballad (Does not even use MP naturally and they have a form of Refresh)
* Bard: Mages Ballad II (I understand, support job, fine. But they still have Refresh)
* Bard: Mages Ballad III (Really?)

* Summoner: Auto-Refresh (May not be much, but helps when no Avatar is out)
* Summoner: Elemental Siphon (Which has also received a boost)
* Summoner: Clear Mind V (Same as stated for BLM)
* Summoner: Diabolos + Avatar's Favor (May not recover much for the SMN, but helps everyone else and was made stronger in a recent update)
* Summoner: Perpetuation Cost going down past level 75, that will make the above combination much more useful.

* Blue Mage: Battery Charge
* Blue Mage: Diffusion + Battery Charge = Refreshga
* Blue Mage: Auto-Refresh (Numerous ways to obtain this)

* Corsair: Evoker's Roll (Again, another support job, but they at least still have it as an option)

* Dancer: Aspir Samba (Not really a support job in the same sense that BRD & COR are, but still has some form of refresh)
* Dancer: Aspir Samba II (Thanks for 2 forms, that they don't need. And when are mages going to melee anyway? That makes this useful to PLD & DRK, assuming they don't want Haste instead)

* Scholar: Sublimation (Up to 25% of Max HP restored to MP, without merits)
* Scholar: Light/Dark Arts (Helps save 10% of MP, not a refresh)
* Scholar: Clear Mind V (Third job to have this)
* Scholar: Strategems (More ways to save MP, even though no refresh)
* Scholar: Manifestation + Aspir = Lots of MP back (great in large sleeping crowds)

What to Give White Mages
How about Reviviscence? WHM are already the kings of "ga" spells, right? Why not Stoneskinga, Aquaveilga, Blinkga, give some power back to and potency back to WHM? Hastega? Hey, you already gave it to Garuda, why not give it to a WHM so that it can NOT suck horribly? If a BLU uses Diffusion, they can cast an AOE Haste that is MUCH more potent than a WHM Haste (something else that now sucks). Clear Mind V at a lower level? Since they have NO refresh ability, they should have the highest Clear Mind in the game. Ooh, how about Clear Mind VI? No, that would make too much sense. Can't have that now, can we? Then people might actually think you care about your fans and don't want to royally screw over WHM, like you have been doing for years. I'll be the first person to admit it, I'm biased towards WHM. But come on, Cure VI is crap (its less efficient than Cure II). Cura I & II are a slap in the face of WHM everywhere. The only good thing you have done for WHM since I have been playing is Afflatus Solace. Misery is useless unless you are soloing/DD'ing and pop up Auspice for Light damage to try and make your lolddwhm less of a joke. Oh man, give a WHM Razed Ruins and let them Hexa Strike and it can out parse Randgrith 1,000 times over.

Conclusion
Please explain to me how this is fair to White mages? And do not say that Cure VI means anything because after using it in battle, Cure V is FAR more efficient, especially to the MP conserving WHM. Cure VI should be a FULL heal for the amount of MP consumed. Almost double the MP consumed, but the amount of HP healed more than a Cure V is about... 50-75 HP, total. Thanks, but I'll toss out two Cure V, suck up the extra 47 MP, heal almost twice the amount of HP and save on enmity since Cure V builds as much hate as a Cure III and Cure VI builds slightly more than a Cure IV. When you balance everything out, White Mage got tossed into the water of Kazham and, let's face it, like every GM knows, that is where the Galka bath. And that's just not right.

To those who wish to comment
Only comment if you ACTUALLY play WHM. Do not tell me to /SCH or /RDM if I want refresh because that defeats the whole purpose of a "Natural" Refresh. It is already mandatory to /SCH for every veteran WHM out there. I know a lot of other people like to /RDM for Convert and Refresh (and Fast Cast). WHM should be concentrating on conserving MP as much as possible because there currently is no Natural Refresh. Sublimation and Light Arts are what most WHM should have up. In the long run, it is more reliable to have MP available without having to waste time curing yourself. A Cure V (or Cure VI if you insist) cast on a WHM that converted is time wasted that could be spent curing a teammate in a dire situation.

[Effilil]

WHM gets 2 native refresh abilities, with 2 major flaws...both are club weapon skills that give 1/9th clubskill in mp, which means you get 37 mp back as a base (there are a couple modifiers such as tp) and no one really lets or wants whm to melee in a party, so you can't use them
I agree with you about Afflatus Misery...I only use it macroe'd in with Esuna (which isn't as good as it should be, it should be able to remove all status ailments except weakness). Solace is the best thing to happen to whm, and I keep it up almost all the time as whm
in terms of usefulness, it seems to me that Sch was built to remove us poor whm from the game...all we really have going for us is -ga and teleports, and they've almost totally removed the need to hire a whm for teleports
Haste 2, Hastega, other buffga spells, and fixing the bar spells so they actually are worth casting would be great additions to whm, even if they don't give us a native refresh ability (which I have wondered why whm doesn't get one since I started playing...it doesn't make sense)
Whm is also the only job to not get any decent boosts in several updates...the latest insult? a job trait that speeds up casting for ailment recovery spells. useful? yes, needed? not really since those spells have short casting times anyway. the best part about it is that it shortens the recast timer
Whm really does need some decent boosts...almost everything a whm is needed for can be done by other jobs using /whm now, which is leaving us poor whm behind
I also wouldn't mind some sort of boost to whm DD, some sort of trait or abilities that could lend whm to actually being wanted to melee for more than ws procs in aby
last point...if whm main weapon is a club, why is the cure potency weapon a staff?

I started out as a whm, and still use it actively...I'm usually main healer in my endgame linkshells because I'm just so experienced as a whm

[Rya]

Such anger! I like it! Now use it for KILLAGE! MWAHAHAHA!!

Mystic Boon is what WHMs get. It's mega-huge. And as if that weren't enough, we got Dagan for guaranteed returns (though they might be smaller).

[Orenwald]

First of all, Cura II is a great spell when you know how to use it. Afflatus Misery is for use as a MELEE white mage (which is very fun ). Cura II is the single most MP efficient way to recover from an AoE move restoring up to 250 MP per person for 45 mp.

Second, you list Clear Mind V as a BLM thing that WHM does have, but WHM gets it at 80, which makes your list very misleading.

Third, 9 times out of 10 RDMs are too lazy to refresh WHMs (in my experience) so WHM/rdm works better for me than /SCH because I can refresh myself. plus when I convert I never cure myself, by the time I need to convert again I've Auto-Regen II'd all my MP back (gogo elvaan MP pool!)

[Simian]

First...I am a WHM that has been playing it as long as you....but I am not an in the box WHM either....not many WHM's that I know have capped merits on Divine Magic....

Secondly...I am Galka and I do not bathe in the waters off Khazam and unless you're a Taru...you do not have my MP pool or my HP pool....

With that said....Outside of Abyssea...when in healer mode....it is WHM/RDM....I can convert and cure someone before I even bother with myself....Within Abyssea....it is /BLM unless the fight is something that will tax my MP pool more than usual....and it is rare in either instance that I take a knee to recover MP....so I think my refresh rate is pretty good....

I'd rather see upgrades to light based damage spells rather than job traits.

[Alkimi]

WHM should be concentrating on conserving MP as much as possible because there currently is no Natural Refresh. situation.

True, we don't have natural refresh. But I really don't see how it is a problem if you play WHM well. You can already get up to 7/tick in gear refresh (up to 9/tick if using Sublimation aswell) and Orison Pantaloons +2 cuts the cost of Cure V down to about 69 MP or thereabouts.

Cure VI is really an abyssea-only spell, useful for heavy curing a DD tank when the recast timer on Cure V isn't quick enough, and in that place refresh isn't a problem anyway.

Whm really does need some decent boosts...almost everything a whm is needed for can be done by other jobs using /whm now, which is leaving us poor whm behind

Complete nonsense really, sorry. The fact that only WHM can use cures higher than IV means they're near-essential for most things. Try curing a DD fighting Rani/Raja/Shinryu using only Cure IV from a subjob, it's not gonna work unless there's 3 of you spamming it.

[Vraelia]

I would like to say, I am a 90 RDM and WHM....and for you to state that about RDMs. Is completely disrespectful in my eyes. RDMs are masters of Refreshing as well as Enfeebling. So, please, back off of RDMs. lols

Anyways, I do agree that WHMs should get a Auto-Refresh JT. It would be useful. lol

[Hiroshiko]

I agree that throughout the years the main issue with WHM was its lack of MP conservation/restoration tools compared to the other mages. I never understood why WHM had the lowest Clear Mind trait of all the mages but had no form of MP restoration. Our potency makes up for a bit of that (“why cast 2 Cure IVs when you can cast Cure V once?” kind of deal), but overall we really had nothing naturally. However, with the introduction of /SCH, the ability to sub RDM (I still prefer /SCH but to each his/her own), and, in Abyssea, Refresh atma, some of our MP issues are becoming less severe. Would I like to see some form of natural MP conservation/restoration tool? Sure, but I don't think it would need to be anything drastic. Maybe a decent Conserve MP trait tacked on at a lower level, or a trait similar to the Orison Pantaloons +1/2 that stacked? Even something like a light-based Aspir that actually works on more than a handful of mobs would be nice. Drains a monster’s HP and converts it to our MP? I don't know. I'll leave that to someone creative.

Also, Cure II isn't as terrible as its predecessor. While it's still not great and I still don't use it as much as Curaga, it does come in handy for some older content mobs (Salvage gears mainly and maybe Cactuar) where I can sit in range of a moderate AoE and actually heal more than I was damaged for (unlike Cura which usually couldn't keep up). However, it is still a slap in the face for larger fights. Cure VI on the other hand is a nightmare. Like the OP said, the ratio of Cure/MP is terrible and is even worse outside of Abyssea when people aren't taking ridiculous amounts of damage. It’s a nice alternative if Cure V is down and someone really needs it.

Overall though, WHM is doing a lot better than it was in the older days. Afflatus Solace/Misery, Esuna, Sacrifice, etc. were nice starts and we have gotten other decent additions (especially inside Abyssea). However, a few tweaks here and there would still be appreciated.

[Fredjan]

To the WHM/RDMs in this thead saying they /rdm so they can refresh themselves:

A WHM/SCH has pretty much the exact same thing in the form of 3mp/tic Sublimation at 90 (SCH45 gets the improved trait, and at level 85+ it's just insane for scholar but that's another subject for another job). At that point it's a question of MP conservation and flexibility from Light Arts' job abilities (/SCH) or convert with a 10minute timer (/RDM) and to me the choice is obvious. I - personally - have never used /rdm, and don't see the point of it outside of cases of having an easy-to-access dark based sleep or dispel without having to pop Dark Arts + Addendum: Black. RDM sub loses the entire point of MP conservation and flexibility (not to mention the conserve MP job trait itself) for raw MP, and that doesn't mean it's superior even without access to Refresh II from a Red Mage. But hey, to each their own.

In abyssea, most White Mages do use refresh atma as some have said here, and there's chances regardless of the sub you'll run low on MP (I feel /sch WHMs last the longest, but that's me). But in a lot of cases, I'll pop Sublimation, and have it fully charged and not even need it, and the buff eventually wears off. In cases like this, it doesn't really matter what the sub is. There's uses for even Black Mage sub (okay, one use... Stun). Conserve MP was the main reason I used /BLM back in the day, but /SCH has it. I have never /BLM'ed just for Warp for example outside of easy traveling to HP when I'm moving around. You'd be surprised how many people I know use it just for Warp after an event... hello, instant warp scroll, only 10 Conquest Points DO YOU HAVE IT?! I personally could get over 30000 instant warp scrolls. That's awesome.

/minor support job rant off. That isn't meant to offend people or anything, it's just how I feel about White Mage's support job options. To each their own, and I'll stick to my view of them. :P

To the point at hand (the topic):

I completely agree that White Mage could use something unique to itself that'd offer MP restoration/conservation. We have no natural refresh without having to resort to weaponskills or support jobs. I would definitely like to see WHM get something, even Auto-Refresh if naught else. Orison Pantaloons +2 was awesome and I feel it's one of the nicest pieces of empyrean armor out there. 5% of a cure amount doesn't seem like a ton but it's more than one'd think. As an example... 1532 Cure 6 for example (something I've managed to reach) would net ~76 MP back. Say I used Light Arts and Penury, lowering the cost to 113~ MP (not even considering further conserve MP procs which are possible). I'd end up spending only 37-38 MP to cure for 1500+. That's just win.

[Simian]

The Cobra Unit Robe set from Campaign has +13 MP conserve for the set. I was laughed at for using it prior to being able to convert and refresh from /RDM, but the set does go far in that category, it just does not add enough MP for those needing an MP pool boost like Galka do.